Minority Candidates Experience Success And Veiled Racism
WASHINGTON (AP) — For all the many successes among candidates of color, the midterm elections also proved to some the enduring power of racism, with minority politicians' intelligence and integrity called into question by their opponents and President Donald Trump in what were widely seen as coded appeals to white voters.
Several Democratic strategists said Wednesday that the outcome showed the need for the party to recalibrate its strategy heading into 2020 and beyond. To win, they said, the party must expand its base of black and brown voters while also calling out racism more directly and doing more to persuade white voters to reject bigotry. "At some point, voters have to stop rewarding racist behavior," said activist Brittany Packnett.
During the campaign cycle, Trump referred to black Tallahassee mayor and Democratic candidate for Florida governor Andrew Gillum as "a thief" because of an undercover FBI investigation into his acceptance of Broadway tickets. Trump also branded Gillum's city "corrupt." And he framed Yale Law School graduate, veteran lawmaker and Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, a black woman, as incompetent.
Republican Ron DeSantis, who beat Gillum on Tuesday, began the campaign by cautioning Florida voters not to "monkey this up" by voting for the Democrat — a remark that was also decried as racist. In the end, Gillum, who would have been Florida's first black governor, came within less than 56,000 votes of DeSantis. In Georgia, the contest for governor was still too close to call on Wednesday.
"Progressives have to have a better rebuttal to Trump's tribalism than they have right now," said Democratic strategist Cornell Belcher. "We have to give moderate white voters who are bothered by a sense of division some skin in this racism game. That's not pivoting to health care. That's talking about how this tribalism will affect them and their children. You don't fix racism by not taking it on."
In an often-combative morning-after news conference Wednesday, Trump rejected any suggestion that he emboldened white nationalists recently by describing himself as a "nationalist." The president repeatedly said the question, posed by a black journalist, was itself racist. -More...
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